Christmas road chaos expected

Drivers and rail passengers faced a day of frustration today, with predictions of gridlocked roads and packed trains at the start of what seemed set to be the most chaotic Christmas get-away for years.

Drivers were urged to stagger journeys amid fears of gridlocked roads, while rail passengers faced difficulties, with crowd control measures expected to continue at major train stations to cope with overcrowding.

The AA predicted that there would be hold-ups on major roads across the country as tens of thousands of people headed out of the big cities.

"Traditionally the last Friday before Christmas is always busy as drivers leave towns for the festive period," said an AA Roadwatch spokesman.

"Roads are already under pressure following a 10% rise in traffic since the Hatfield rail crash and the annual exodus will probably increase the problems," he said.

The western section of the M25 would be badly hit, with a knock-on impact on adjoining roads.

Delays were also predicted on the M3 from London down to the A303 and then on to the West Country, and tailbacks were likely on routes around the West Midlands, including the M6, M5 and M42.

Rail travellers using Virgin trains from Euston will be issued with boarding passes, while those using Great North Eastern Railway (GNER) services from King's Cross and Edinburgh will have to go through a ticket barrier.

With services reduced due to speed restrictions, the volume of passengers was expected to be very high up to Christmas Eve.

On the East Coast main line, GNER was only running a 40% service, while Virgin was only running about 80% of its normal Christmas service.

GNER, which runs trains to York, Newcastle and Edinburgh from King's Cross, said it expected to carry a quarter of a million people over the holiday period up to January 5.

The National Express coach network said it was carrying between 15% and 20% more passengers throughout the UK than at this time last year.

BAA said Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports were gearing up for the holiday getaway, with more than two million people expected to travel over the Christmas and New Year period.

Disruption to rail services was causing an upsurge in domestic air travel and added about 200,000 passengers to traffic on UK mainland routes last month.